April 2013 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

Definitely autumn now! We've even needed to turn the heaters on at times!
This annual morning glory has been quite delightful in the cooler weather [will it set seeds?] though not very vigorous - may need to grow it with something else so that the support looks a bit more "clothed"!
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Some "autumn bulbs" in flower now
Brunsvigia gregaria
Lycoris elsae
Lycoris aurea
Nerine fothergila "Major" [I believe this has been "sunk" into N. sarniensis]
Cyclamen mirabile ex Tilebarn Nicholas

cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Yes, here too, after the weeks and weeks of stifling days and nights, rain a few days ago - not much, just 13mm here - suddenly it has the autumn feel about it. Still drought in the north though.

I'm getting excited about the Czech conference, just 3 weeks today until I leave home. Roger seems to be excited too and looking forward to it. The devil. He hasn't yet seen the list of "things to do while I'm away" I have for him.

[Lvandelft]

Great pictures Fermi, we can only dream of growing such beautiful Lycoris here 

[fermi de Sousa]

Great pictures Fermi, we can only dream of growing such beautiful Lycoris here 

Hi Luit,
like I dream of being able to grow Hepaticas here
Some more Sternbergia sicula in flower now x 2 pics;
a pale pink Cyclamen graecum in the rock garden
A different sort of South African daisy - Hirpicum amerioides - does better in a pot for us;
A nice grouping of Zephyranthes candida,
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Looking forward to seeing you again Fermi. Not long now. I leave 2 weeks today.   I must get back to my Blog which has had a break much longer than I intended. The fact is I've been very busy actually DOING the garden stuff instead of writing about it. As well, I've been finishing market things, as I'm retiring finally on April 20th. So will try a Blog issue tonight. Hopefully.

Crocuses here mostly, and nerines, and cyclamen.

[Hillview croconut]

Lovely photos Fermi - autumn seems to be moving on very well for you.

A few crocus pictures:

goulimyi Mani White
tournefortii - nearly all white ones
niveus - pale bicolours
speciosus - what a star
serotinus ssp clusii - ex Norman Stevens

Not sure about the subspecies tag these days seeing just about everyone has been raised to specific rank.

Cheers, Marcus

[Anthony Darby]

First flowers on my cyclamen seedlings, but then this pot of Cyclamen africanum was only sown in February 2012! My $10 Epidendron ibaguense is flowering again, as is another of my frangipanis. All of these are grown outside, with the orchid in this pot against a west facing wall. The Cyclamen is now in full sun, but only when the flower buds appeared. It is normally in full shade against a south facing wall. The mantis is a male springbok mantis (Miomantis caffra), an immigrant from South Africa. They are quite common in the garden.

[Hillview croconut]

Few more pictures from the Great Southern land .... well the little bit on the end of it.

Crocus salzmanii
Cyclamen hederifolium Stargazer - a strange but beguiling beastie
Cyclamen intaminatum - with patterned leaf but not very
Cyclamen graecum - a very old plant given to me by Otto years ago now the size of a small boulder

Cheers, Marcus

[fermi de Sousa]

First flower yesterday on Crocus serotinus ssp salzmannii - from seed from Rafa sown in May 2009.
cheers
fermi

[Mini bulb lover]

A colchicum that I purchased over 10 years ago as C. psaridis has been identified by Otto as being C. cupanii. It's a cute little plant. The first flower to open was less than 5cm (2 inches) tall. Some of the later flowers where taller, although I think it's because they were originally growing in a more shady area. I've included a side shot of the flowers (those flowers are under 10cm). After flowering the leaves grow to about 15 - 20cm.

Gentiana scabra "Shri Krishna" is flowering too. I have seen it for sale as "Shrin Krishna" so I don't know which name is correct.

[Hillview croconut]

Hi Jon,

Colchicum cupanii usually has much broader leaves than C. psaridis and the latter is stoloniferous.

I am posting two flower pictures. The first is Crocus cartwrightianus collected by me as seed on the Greek island of Serifos and the second is Crocus oroecreticus again collected by me as seed at the Nidi Plain on Mt Idi, Crete. The latter has much shorter stigmas but from an open flower POV they look pretty close.

Whilst cleaning up the other day I uncovered a slumbering lizard (skink I think) preparing for his winter hibernation. A little while later I actually picked this second, almost identically sized, one up in a clump of leaves and had him in the bin before I even knew it!

Cheers, Marcus

[fermi de Sousa]

Nerine rosea is a favourite for me because it survives the frost we have without protection!
I hope to be able to use it to raise some more frost hardy hybrids.
cheers
fermi

[arillady]

Marcus he must have had a very rude awakening when he landed in the bin. Just when he thought he was all settled in too under a good blanket of leaves.

[Anthony Darby]

That's one of the allowed species in New Zealand, although you can't buy them in Auckland. Our native skinks here are very much smaller, but the commonest round here is the Australian rainbow skink. Blue tongues eat a lot of snails.